Getting the Most out of the least. I'm a hybrid strongman/Bodyweight guy/odd lifter with a flavor for unconventionality and an interest in getting strong. Welcome.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Shooting my mouth off: because I can't shoot members of the AMA either

Hopefully, our collective heart rate elevated at the same time our gag reflexes were tested to their limits when the AMA stepped out of its collective mind and declared that obesity is actually a disease. My strength-and-health page-heavy Facebook Feed exploded with debates about this decision. Some of us thought it was a wise decision by the official definition of a disease. Others saw this as a massive smack in the face of good sense and a major win for lazy stupidity.

If you happen to be one of the former and won't be dissuaded that obesity is a disease, please feel free to immediately stop reading by blog, find a thick and long object, and swallow it sideways...

For those who stuck around to listen to me on my modest, cyber-podium, let's throw one thing up on the screen right about now: The definition of a disease. After all, just about every proponent of this change of heart by AMA has sighted this definition. So, let's start clearing the air with what I found here:

disease /dis·ease/ (dĭ-zēz´) any
deviation from or interruption of the normal structure or function of any body
part, organ, or system that is manifested by a characteristic set of symptoms
and signs and whose etiology, pathology, and prognosis may be known or unknown.
See also entries under syndrome.

So, the nuanced, bleeding-heart, sensitive, brain-dead, senseless, show-me-your-medical-qualifications-Justin-Paul AMA supporters will happily point out that since being fat causes a laundry list of diseases it fits the definition of a disease itself. So, I'll pull my free-thinking mind out and sit on for just a second. Let's say that getting fat/obesity is a disease. So, how do we treat it? How do we stop the body from getting fat?

That's why we haven't seen an effective diet drug pill to prevent getting fat yet. When we eat (too much, in this case), we provoke a lot of hormonal reactions that can trigger weight gain. Insulin, cortisol, and leptin are three that jump to the top of the list. They aren't the only ones though. Testosterone and estrogen alike, if they're not at the right levels, can trigger weight gain. That's just five hormones that can affect whether or not you get fat. The reason why an effective and safe diet-in-a-pill hasn't been created yet is that while one hormone can be manipulated to stop fat gain, all of the others can step in make you fat. Trying to control of them with drugs is difficult...and dangerous.

There's something that too many people miss when they talk about obesity as a disease in the following explanation: if there are several different hormones that your body produces that can make you fat, isn't therefore getting fat when you eat too much a normal body reaction? That, of course, is a resounding...

YES!

There is nothing...NOTHING!!!... deviating or interrupted when you eat too much and you get fat in your body's system. That is what your body is meant to do. Just because being too fat can make you prone to disease doesn't make it a disease itself. That is what is so horribly fucking stupid about this vote is that normal, bodily function is now considered a disease. By that rationality, there are a host of other normal things the body does that could be considered a disease.

The most obvious that comes to my mind is getting a tan or being tanned. Excessive tanning can cause skin cancer. The body's normal reaction to exposure to UV rays is to darken the skin. There is normal and not deviating from normal function of the skin when it tans. If it's done too often and for too long, it can cause a disease. Is a tan disease now because having a tan carries the potential for skin cancer?

Or what about being horny? If you have sex, you can certainly get a lot of tasty and wonderful diseases from that too. Is the desire to fuck a lot a sign of a diseased body since you can get AIDS on your herpes from sex?

I suppose you could make the case that having big muscles is a disease too. The things we have to do to thicken up our bodies with muscle mass carries the possibility of disrupting normal body functions.

Yes, this is all ridiculous but no more ridiculous than the doctor's union (let's not kid ourselves, the American Medical Association is nothing more, at its core, than a doctor's union) just did. In continuation with the notion of not kidding ourselves, let's just be blunt and realize that for decades, most doctors didn't have enough of a clue about how to treat a human body unless it involved drugs. Around the early 1900's, doctors used to tell people that weight training could bind up the joints, causing them to stop moving and that exercise would use up all of the beats that the human heart is capable of producing in its lifetime prematurely. Things haven't improved with this vote to call getting fat a disorder.

Of course, this is all very convenient for the overwhelming majority of the population of the USA and the drug manufacturers that service this pile of fat citizenry. They won't take the notion that a genuine fat-loss medication is dangerous to pursue lying down and the people that will buy it want no disturbance in their lying down time. The AMA may have just made a two groups of people incredibly happy with this vote.

2 comments:

I'm curious about how the majority of fat people feel about this decision. If anything, they're not going to be treated any better now because of this. I know if I was a lardass I wouldn't want anyone calling me diseased over it. I actually haven't heard a single fat fuck's opinion about this yet. Everybody chirping about it so far has been someone who is heavily into working out. Myself included. I can definitely understand our collective opinion but I do wonder now about the other half.

"Being a fat person, I agree obesity is a problem of epidemic proportion...but disease, I have a problem calling it a disease. Put the double "what ever down" pick up a carrot and go for walk...disease my ass!!"

I'm sure that there are plenty of fat fucks out there that are nodding their heads (and their multiple chins) that this is a good vote. I just haven't found them yet in my personal life.